The present invention relates to data processing methods, systems, and computer program products, and, more particularly, to data processing methods, systems, and computer program products for updating software on a data processing system.
Users and/or developers of software routinely backup or take snapshots of the software running on their systems as a precaution in case an application or data should be lost, corrupted, or otherwise compromised. It is generally desired that a snapshot of the software running on a system (or systems) be an atomic operation. That is, all of the snapshot operations should complete successfully for the snapshot to be deemed successful. Otherwise, the snapshot should be considered to have failed so that it will not be used for a recovery operation and potentially include corrupt applications or data. Unfortunately, because of the length of time that it can take to complete a backup or snapshot procedure, ensuring that the backup or snapshot procedure is atomic may be difficult.